Bath in top 10 most romantic places in Britain

With its honey-coloured cottages, snugly clustered in pretty villages, roaring fires and country inns, it should be no surprise that the Cotswolds has been named as one of the most romantic destinations for Valentine’s Day holidaymaking couples.

And a survey of the nation’s romantics has named three other West locations in the top ten, giving something of a boost to the South West’s tourist industry so beleaguered by storms, floods and travel disruption.

In the survey, asking for people to vote for the most romantic destination in the UK, the Cotswolds was narrowly beaten into second place by the Lake District, with Cornwall fourth, the Georgian splendour and Jane Austen film set scenery of Bath ranked eighth and Devon sneaking in at tenth spot.

And, obviously, when the nation’s romantics were asked to choose the least romantic places – not a single place in the West was even mentioned, with Slough, Birmingham, Scunthorpe and Hull named as the worst places to take a Valentine’s holiday.

London was named as the third most romantic place, and the seventh least, proving that the capital is a mixed bag, depending presumably, whether you stay in Piccadilly or Peckham.